Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives

441 Pages·2000·24.119 MB·English

by  Cynthia Enloe

MANEUVERS
CYNTHIA ENLOE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
MANEUVERS

MANEUVERS
CYNTHIA ENLOE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2.000 by The Regents of the University of California
Enloe, Cynthia H., 1938-
Maneuvers: the international politics of militarizing women's
lives I Cynthia Enloe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-520-22071-3 Calk. paper)
I. Women and the military. 2.. Women and war. I. Title.
UU.7S.ESS2.4 2.000
3SS'·0082.-dcu 99-2.8136
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
12 11 10 09
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of ANsIiNISO z39.48-1992 (R 1997)
(Permanence of Paper).
To the memory of my mother
Harriett Goodridge Enloe
1907-1983

CONTENTS
Preface / ix
1 How Do They Militarize a Can of Soup? / I
2 The Laundress, the Soldier, and the State / 35
3 The Prostitute, the Colonel, and the Nationalist / 49
4 When Soldiers Rape / Io8
5 If a Woman Is "Married to the Military,"
Who Is the Husband? / I53
6 Nursing the Military: The Imperfect Management
of Respectability / I98
7 Filling the Ranks: Militarizing Women as Mothers,
Soldiers, Feminists, and Fashion Designers / 235
Conclusion: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions / 288
Notes / 30I
Selected Bibliography / 379
Index / 399

PREFACE
A fax machine never sleeps. If it rings around 11:00 at night-perhaps
it is Australia, a friend from the other side of the dateline sending the
latest about a prolonged sexual harassment case aboard the Australian
navy ship Swan. If the fax rings at four or five in the morning, it's more
likely that the message is coming from London; a friend already having
read the morning papers is passing along news of the Labor govern
ment's waffling on its earlier election campaign pledge to lift the ban on
gays in the British military. If the fax paper scrolls out of the machine
when the sun has risen over the neighborhood's rooftops, it could be
from Santiago, Ximena regaling me with the tale of an infamous army
former torturer hiding out in the military's gynecology hospital. Com
ing home in the evening, I may find that Jeff, Nike's global nemesis, has
faxed an update on the Indonesian government's use of its security
forces to put down demonstrations by women workers employed in
that country's sneaker factories. A lot of people these days are keeping
track of their own countries' militarized gendered maneuvers.
Fax and e-mail are only the latest in a long line of successors to the
carrier pigeon. I confess that I still relish the postcard arriving by ordi
nary mail that commemorates an anonymous wartime suffragist, or
the manila envelope holding a precious feminist newsletter from Bel
grade with its analysis of resurging nationalist militarism.
Over the past decade I have found that it is only by lots of us piec
ing together all sorts of information that we can make full sense of
Ix